[sgtpokey]

Ok,

Thought I'd briefly share my thoughts on my new PRS-650.

First off, I've owned the PRS-505 and PRS-900 (1st Gen 7" Wireless Edition) so those are my direct comparisons.

Before I get to my impressions, one question that I hope new owners can answer:

In the beginning of the user guide, it states that you can easily see the time by pressing the options button. I would quite like that feature but cannot see a way to turn that on (If I hit options, I get the standard options menu with no clock view anywhere, nor any menu navigation to the clock). Anyone see where/how to configure this feature?

Now on to my impressions:

I had to decide between the 950 or the 650 and eventually opted for the 650. Much of this review probably pertains to the entire family (350, 650, 950) since they share the same generation screen technology and presumably the same user interface.

The most noticeable thing about the 650 is the screen contrast is easily the best I've seen. I expect all new readers using e-inks' new Pearl generation of displays to be this crisp so this won't be a specific Sony capability. They ARE the first as far as I know so for now I would say they have the best reader screen out there by far. Side-by-side, the 900 is by far inferior and it is also superior to the 505, from what I recall. Gone too is the extra glare that the 900's touchscreen layer had so what you are left with is a superior screen than the 505 with the touch capabilities of the previous generation (600/900).

The second thing to notice is that the display is noticeably more responsive, both in page turns and in the user interface. You don't have the noticeable wait between "pressing" a button/screen and the action taking place as you did with either the 900 or the 505. It's still not instantaneous all the time, but it *acts* the way any electronic device would act (i.e. even the iphone is not always instantaneous). The responsiveness combined with touch makes the whole touch experience much more usable and intuitive than it was in the 900. With the 900, sometimes you had to wait for a reaction from your touch and that is never a good user experience.

finally, all the little things Sony seems to have gotten right (pending the question I posed up front regarding how to turn the clock feature on). An example: The 650 lets you easily set up a picture to use as a screensaver when you turn the 650 to "standby". As previous sony owners know, standby is really the default "off", and that used to make the screen go blank. However, since e-ink uses no power I've always wished to be able to configure the "blank" screen to be any picture in your collection --> the 650 lets you do that. It's a great feature to have whatever photo/art you want passively displayed when you are not reading.

From a physical perspective, the dimensions are real: it's thinner and lighter than the previous generation (600) and the styling is better than the 900 (no comment on the 600). I do not yet have a cover for it so can't comment on the Sony branded covers yet, but I'll repeat what I said in a previous post, the 900's built-in cover was terrible and for my purposes not as good as a real cover (the 900 had a front cover but no back cover as the front cover was integrated into the body of the 900).

For those with a 505, it's still smaller than the 505 but about the same thickness and weight. Styling-wise it looks more modern due to the 505's extra buttons but if you liked the 505's styling, you will find the 650 of equal standard.

That's about it for now, I am extremely pleased with the reading quality and general updates of this newest generation from sony!!